Now I have seen it all )) strippers at funerals
Talk about going out with a bang or rising from
The dead

Apparently a genuine custom in China

What other strange customs are there in far off places which would seem bizarre to us ?

VP959

20th Feb 2018, 11:11

I rather think my late father might have enjoyed having such a custom. He wrote a fair few unusual stipulations about his funeral into a document that he made us all agree to honour, including one that everyone at his funeral, including the local directors of the bank he'd worked for, must attend the funeral wearing psychedelic outfits. Seeing half a dozen senior bankers in dark suits and psychedelic shirts and ties, looking extremely uncomfortable, was one of the highlights. They did excuse themselves from the wake early though, perhaps they might have stayed longer if there had been strippers there.

Pace

20th Feb 2018, 12:22

I know in hot countries they tend to bury quickly
Maybe this custom is to check whether the deceased is really dead ? ))

Hussar 54

20th Feb 2018, 13:14

Not actually a funeral custom, but....

Three years ago when I was still based in Lagos, my driver/bodyguard asked if he could borrow the car at the weekend to go to his father's funeral in Benin City.

No problem, I replied, but he'd have to drop me off at the office at MMA Saturday morning before he set off.

Saturday morning arrives and at 07.15 I get the usual phone ring to let me know he's outside the flat waiting for me.

When I got down to the car, there's father's body wrapped up in plastic sheets and strapped to the roof rack to be taken back to Benin City for his funeral.

After my w-t-f moment, my driver explained that this was the normal and only way to get dead people from Lagos back home to the family grave and didn't understand why I was being a bit put off by father being on the roof rack, because if he hadn't been taking me to work, he would have just put the back seat down and loaded him into the back of the car for the journey.

VP959

20th Feb 2018, 13:29

Sounds a bit like the story my late F-i-L told me, when he was picking up any work he could in the US to build up his hours. He was asked to fly a body somewhere, in a Cessna. Apparently they just strapped the body in the right hand seat, inside a body bag and off he went. As he climbed he was scared sh*tless when the body groaned, and had a white-knuckle flight to his destination.

Chatting to some of the other guys he discovered this wasn't unusual, and that bodies often made a noise when transported like this, from air expanding and escaping during the climb.

No idea how true this story was, but it's a good tale anyway.

Fareastdriver

20th Feb 2018, 14:47

Had a dead Indon loaded into the back of my Whirlwind in Borneo. When I arrived at Tawau I looked in the cabin and he was sitting up. We always flew with the main door open so the sun must have affected his body.

I remember this incident at Liverpool when a family tried to board a deadman as a passenger to take him back to Germany

How they thought they would get him through security checks ?

racedo

20th Feb 2018, 20:13

How they thought they would get him through security checks ?

If you passed through security there you would understand easily..............

Loose rivets

21st Feb 2018, 00:25

A well known skipper at SEN told us the sad story of a body exploding in a Dove due to the reduced cabin pressure. The mess was so horrific they burnt the aircraft.

Affear'd of this, I once declined a body which would have to have been loaded in the tail of a DC3 full of passengers. I regretted the distress caused, but had this all too clear image of the story. The baggage was simply turn right at the rear door behind some webbing.

Ancient Mariner

21st Feb 2018, 02:11

Gnoogle Chinese Cemetery Manila. Prepare to be impressed.
Per

WingNut60

21st Feb 2018, 03:32

There are some quite extraordinary burial rites found all over the world.

My wife is Torajan. The entire Torajan culture is wound around funerary rites.
If you want to see things extraordinary then try a web query for that cultural group, or take a trip to Kambira / Makale and have a look at the baby tree.

The Kalimantan Dayaks have some interesting rites too. Like digging the deceased up after a year to pay ritual last respects.

Pace

21st Feb 2018, 09:20

The Kalimantan Dayaks have some interesting rites too. Like digging the deceased up after a year to pay ritual last respects.

This amazing discovery in Mexico showing caves 340 km long gives an insight into the ancient Mayans
The Bones found piled in the caves would indicate burning a common practice

In my 20s I knew a very traditional Gypsy Girl
Her Grandmother was burnt in her Caravan on an ancient path at a crossroads not sure what the symbolic intention was ?

Pinky the pilot

21st Feb 2018, 09:56

Anyone who has ever had the misfortune/bad luck to have flown a 'Coffin Charter' in Papua New Guinea will quite easily relate to the topic of this thread.

In general; You may not even have the deceased (in a sealed coffin) on board the aircraft but either way, the pax accompanying the deceased (or just the pax going to the funeral) will be exactly like on any other flight anywhere!:ooh:

That is, until you arrive in the destination circuit area.:uhoh:

Upon which, the behaviour of all pax takes a sudden and dramatic turn. They commence an extremely loud wailing, weeping, screaming and lamentation which can, on extreme cases, turn to the rending of clothing and pulling out of hair from their heads. I must confess that I only ever witnessed the last mentioned extremes once!

This continues even after landing and disembarking of all on board. Unfortunately, in some cases then the shitfight really starts!:eek: For the aircraft must return to its starting point (Post Moresby in all cases experienced by this writer) and there is a general free-for-all by every Villager present to try to get onto the aircraft for a free flight to 'the big smoke.' The actual charterer of the flight is generally powerless to stop the brawl/riot/free-for-all and mostly makes himself scarce, letting all the wannabes fight it out for themselves.

A prudent Pilot will retire to a place of isolation and let the rioters get on with it. I once spent nearly 4 hours in the company of some lovely elderly Catholic Nuns who kept me refuelled with freshly ground and brewed locally grown Highland Coffee and freshly baked cakes and scones. One of the Nuns told me a story of how one morning she heard aircraft flying high overhead, went outside to try to identify them, and saw a flight of Mitsubishi 'Betty' bombers, escorted by several flights of Zeros, headed to Port Moresby.:ooh: